Summer vacation 2007

Didn’t make it to bed as everything took a lot more time than I budgeted; including getting a compass and a decent bag for Michael, which entailed a trip to Toyku Hands. So I stayed up all night alternately packing and futzing around on the computer and watching the Yankees kill Tampa Bay. I finally did lay down for 15 minutes before getting up and cooking breakfast. Between washing the dishes and taking out the garbage, we cut it very close on getting to the limousine bus -- three minutes to spare. Bus ride to Narita was extremely slow, so it’s a good thing we took the 6:30 bus. I tried to get some sleep, but I don’t think I did. We rented cell phones and bought travel insurance. Incredibly wasteful, but... The voyage got off on a shaky foot when the pilot aborted take off due to a flashing red light. Fortunately, there wasn’t really a problem and we got of the ground successfully on the second attempt. After that the flight was unremarkable; no turbulence or anything. We were lucky to have a bank of three seats to ourselves. I found that if I sat in the middle seat and folded the headrest on the aisle seat just right, I could lean across and find a position where I could sleep. I guess I got about two hours of sleep that way. I watched Blades of Glory, Lonely Hearts and Zodiac to help pass the time. Not having much sleep over the past 36 hours made it impossible to read or do anything else that required concentration. Nonetheless, when we finally arrived I still felt reasonable well. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is this vast place that looks as much like a shopping mall as an airport. All kinds of shops everywhere and a train station and even a casino. We breezed through immigration and customs without so much as a question about how long we would be in the country. Buying a ticket to Amsterdam Central was time consuming -- we didn’t have any Euro coins, so we bought the ticket from the ticket window and there was a bit of a line, and a 50 cent surcharge for buying from a human being. The train took about twenty minutes and gave us a glance at a very verdant suburban area. Lots of big, beautiful trees and canals. I guess I should mention that the forecast we got on the airplane was 18° and rain. It was all of that. When we got to Amsterdam Central and tried to find the tram to our hotel, it was a steady chilly rain. After waiting for 15 minutes in the wrong place, we found the correct boarding place and were off to the Van Gogh museum stop and then easily walked to our hotel...or hostel. A very basic place -- two bunk beds with about two feet between. No TV, towels, soap, shampoo, chairs, nothing. But free Internet in the lobby if you wait 15 minutes for the Italian kids to get done playing around (for some reason they thought putting up a picture of Mussollini as a wallpaper would be funny.) In a driving rain, we set off to find dinner and walk through the red-light district. Arriving at Leidseplein soaked to the bone, we found a Dutch restaurant called De Blauwe Hollander. Dutch food is just as simple and plain as everyone says. Michael got Stamppot -- mashed potatoes with carrots and onions covered by beef stew. I got thin slices of roast beef covered with boiled potatoes and gravy, with a side dish of cauliflower in cheese sauce. We had an appetizer of bitterballen--small croquette served with a mustard sauce. We both had plenty of Heineken. Nothing was bad, but you did feel that it really shouldn’t cost 56 Euros for such basic fare. We were still considering soldering on, but the rain had increased in intensity and a strong, cold wind had started to blow, so we gave it up and made our way back to the hotel. Michael collapsed almost immediately and I did as well after a short Internet session. It was 9:45. Our fellow residents were partying it up most of the night and they woke me a couple of times, but nothing could keep me from sleep. We got up at about 7:00 and have been working on our journals this morning. Soon we’ll depart for the museums. It is still grey and overcast, but from the window it doesn’t appear to be raining, so hopefully our visit to Amsterdam won’t be a complete waste. Then this evening we leave for Athens.